


Those Who Are Weary

by Cobalt_Blue99



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010), Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Bruce Wayne is Batman, But it'll make sense later, Damian Wayne is Robin, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, I pick and choose, It's actually kinda complicated, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Kinda, Not Canon Compliant, Promise, T for swearing, Tim Drake is Red Robin, also i am broke, it's one scene and nothing comes from it, lots and lots of swearing, nothing comes from it, oc (mentioned) - Freeform, school lockdown (one scene), so I don't have money for comics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:01:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 18,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26359141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cobalt_Blue99/pseuds/Cobalt_Blue99
Summary: After being accused yet again for a crime he didn’t commit, Jason Todd was given an offer he couldn’t refuse. Years later, the Justice League is attacked and sends out the call urging all heroes to unite and fight against this new threat.So, what does this have to do with one Jacqueline Garcia? A lot more than you’d think.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 116
Kudos: 362





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> Not going to lie, this one is going to get weird. But hey, it's going to be a LOT longer than my other two works. Also, there is a (kinda) OC. It's complicated. I can't say much more than that without spoiling the first few chapters. Also, I'll update tags and warnings as they apply. I'm still new at this, so cut me some slack and please let me know if I'm doing something wrong.
> 
> Also, I've already got the next few chapters wrote up, but I'm going to pace myself posting them because I have exams coming up soon and I don't want to just leave this work hanging for months on end without an update.
> 
> And yes, fine, maybe some of my gripes about college made it into this first chapter. Sue me (please don't).
> 
> Warnings for this chapter: a college goes into lockdown because of a supervillain attack. Nothing happens to the students though.

_“Thanks for letting me stay here.”_

_“What happened?”_

_“They think I killed someone. Why do they never believe me? What is it?”_

_“A gift. It’s for you.”_

_“Me? I don’t get it.”_

_“I won’t need it anymore.”_

_“What?”_

_“I won’t need it anymore.”_

_“Why would I need, or want, it?”_

_“They don’t believe you,”_

_“So? They’ll realize it wasn’t me. Eventually. They always do.”_

_“And then the damn cycle repeats. Listen, this is it. This is your chance to escape. One hundred percent foolproof. Not even the Bats could find it.”_

_“You want me to abandon everything.”_

_“You’ve already abandoned yourself. Take this chance, find yourself. Think about it, please. I want to give you a chance.”_

_“They’ll find me. Something will happen and they’ll find me.”_

_“Probably. But it will give you a chance to find yourself first.”_

_“Alright. What do I need to do?”_

* * *

Jacqueline Garcia, or Jackie as she preferred to be called, was unremarkable.

If you asked her cohort what she was like, they wouldn’t be able to tell you much beyond the fact that the junior chemistry major was always studying late hours in the campus library or that she was a good lab partner. If you asked her professors what they thought, they would tell you that she was a good student but not much else. All in all, she wasn’t too memorable.

However, if you asked her roommate what she thought, well, that was where things got interesting.

Robin Gillas was a sophomore psychology major with plans to become a human resource specialist. It was luck of the draw that the on-campus housing lottery had placed Jackie in the same dorm room as her. The semester had started only a month prior, and Robin already had a laundry list of reasons to complain to her friends about her unfortunate luck in roommates.

Like Jackie’s clumsiness. Normally this wouldn’t be something to complain about, but like most things, Jackie took it to an extreme. She would constantly trip over thin air, drop heavy or fragile objects willy-nilly, and smack into the furniture. Robin had once witnessed the hapless girl stub her toe walking _past_ a doorframe.

Robin had also noted that Jackie had a deep distrust of anything electronic. Sure, she still had a laptop for assignments and whatnot, but she used a burner phone (much to the dismay of her lab partners) and didn’t have any sort of social media.

Even more concerning was her frequent and somewhat violent nightmares. Last week Robin had had a rude awakening to screams of, “They’re in the room!” It had taken her nearly ten minutes to convince her distressed roommate that no, there wasn’t anyone else in the room, much less shadow ninjas.

As a psychology major, maybe Robin should have been more interested in her roommate’s behavior but at this point she was beyond done, and it showed through her interactions with Jackie.

Not that Jackie really cared. She preferred a roommate who, even if she bitched to her friends, minded her own business for the most part.

After all, she really wasn’t here to make friends. She just wanted to get her degree and go.

Only three and a half semesters to go, that was her mantra.

Once she had her degree, she could go anywhere. Hopefully far, far away from the East Coast and all the crazy capes and villains that were running around.

What the fuck she was thinking when she chose to go to college in Metropolis, she would never know. It was frickin’ crazy! Metropolis University even had lockdown drills in case there was a supervillain attack, though the plan was basically to stay in the classroom and pray that Superman showed up.

Damn. Step aside fire drills, you’re no longer needed. Unless, you know, Firefly shows up or something. Still, Firefly is more of a Batman villain so if he did appear …

Only three and a half semesters to go.

If she lived that long. Fuck.

Though her p-chem prof was going to kill her long before any villain got the chance. Just looking at the pages and pages of integrals, power series, and absolute derivatives made her eyes cross. Like, what the fuck? Is this still even chemistry? It all just looks like math and, shudder, _physics_.

Staring at the homework due in a few short hours, it was times like this that Jackie regretted not having any friends. She knew for a fact that the rest of her cohort studied together in smaller cliques of “friends.” Not being a part of any of those groups meant that she wasn’t able to compare answers with anyone else.

Sometimes life’s a bitch. No, scratch that. Sometimes humans are a bitch. And by humans, Jackie meant herself. The rest of her cohort was actually kinda cool. Still, old habits die hard. There was no way she was going to be able to make any friends, not with her history.

Speaking of history, had she already turned in the paper for her art history class yet? It’s due tomorrow morning to the drop box, and late assignments lose points…

Jackie was so caught up in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the dark storm clouds rolling in until she felt a drop of water hit her nose.

“Fuck!” She shouted loudly, drawing the curious look of several passersby on their way to class. She quickly gathered her notes from the picnic table where they were spread out and threw them into her worn-out backpack. As she was zipping the backpack, she noticed a large tear next to one of the zippers. “Fuck!”

With an exhausted groan, she slung her backpack over her shoulder and rushed off towards the humanities building, making it seconds before gallons of water started pouring from the darkened sky.

“Damn. If I wanted rain, I would’ve gone to Gotham,” Jackie mused, watching as the wind started picking up.

It was odd though. The forecast hadn’t called for a thunderstorm.

Jackie stared at the ominous clouds, debating if she could make it back to her dorm or not before deciding against it and finding a table in one of the halls to sit at. Her backpack wasn’t waterproof, and even if it was, there was still that hole. All her notes and rental books would get wet. Better just to wait for a break in the weather.

Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong.

Of fucking course her suspicions were proved right moments later when the alarms started blaring and the emergency lights started blinking.

Villain attack, because why not?

A voice over the speakers informed students that a villain had been spotted nearby and to seek shelter in one of the classrooms, because a puny five in thick wall would definitely stop a villain if he wanted to get into the room. Still safer than wandering outside, Jackie supposed.

Once again, Jackie gathered up her notes and shoved them into her abused bag. Technically, when the alarms go off you are supposed to abandon all your belongings and just book it to shelter. Not going to happen. So much shit gets stolen around here that Jackie even brings her bag into the bathroom stall with her.

Superman might be able to stop a rampaging robot, but he has yet to stop a petty crime on campus.

Jackie resentfully tossed one strap over her shoulder and made her way to the nearest classroom. Luckily, she was in one of the older buildings on campus. Some of the newer buildings had doors that lock automatically from the inside if the alarm goes off.

She pushed the door open and was greeted by cultish sight of a professor wearing a toga and holding a scroll standing before a semicircle of students sitting on the floor.

“You mind if I hunker down here?” Jackie asked, not at all concerned about the odd sight before her.

“Absolutely,” The professor said, waving her into the room.

“Thanks.”

Jackie dropped her backpack against the wall and sat down beside it. A few more students filtered into the room, some looking more startled than others at the state of the classroom.

The minutes ticked by as everyone listened to the raging storm. The wind picked up even more as the thunder roared loudly, shaking the room.

A few students had pulled out their phones and were trying to figure out what was going on.

A student from the class sitting in front of Jackie showed her phone to her friend and whispered, “Looks like it’s Weather Wizard.”

“I thought he was a Flash villain?” Her friend whispered back.

The student shrugged. “It’s not like they have boundaries or anything.”

True. But usually villains stick with their M.O. Something Jackie had been extremely grateful for in the past. It was kind of surprising that Weather Wizard came to Metropolis. Villains usually avoided the city like the plague unless they were from it for the same reasons that they avoided Gotham.

The bigger name the cape, the harder they hit.

Plus, no one in their right mind wanted to end up in Arkham. Even the crazies knew that it wasn’t somewhere they wanted to go, though they would inevitably break out before the year was up. Why Batman always fucking insisted on throwing his baddies in there was beyond Jackie. If you weren’t insane before being sent there, you definitely were after.

Robin had once told Jackie that she wrote a paper on it and everything. Got a B+ on it too.

It was amazing what those with an outside perspective thought about that hellhole of a city. Definitely not somewhere Jackie planned on visiting anytime soon.

The end of the hour had nearly arrived before the thunder finally softened to a low rumble before stopping entirely.

The alarms stopped blaring as an all clear played out over the speakers. The students sighed a breath of relief and tension she didn’t know was there flowed out of Jackie’s body.

“Due to the circumstances, we’ll pick up again next time,” The professor proclaimed cheerfully to his ring of students. “Remember to watch the clip from _Life of Brian_ before Friday and I’ll see you then.”

Jackie vowed right then and there she would figure out what this class so she could take it next year.

She grabbed her discarded backpack and joined the wave of human bodies leaving the classroom. Once she was in the hall, she debated finding somewhere to sit before deciding to head back to the dorm. Her classes were done for the day and all the good study spots were likely already claimed.

The walk back to the dorm was pleasant. The after-storm-smell that permeated the air made Jackie nostalgic. Despite herself, a stab of longing pierced her heart. Maybe she could go back, maybe she could at least check on them…

No. Soon, maybe, but not yet.

Jackie dodged a few late sophomores as they ran out of her dorm hall. She caught the door behind them before it could lock and made her way to the elevator.

A years ago, she would have taken the stairs. Now, she was so mentally and physically exhausted all the time that she didn’t really feel like walking three flights with a backpack weighed down by expensive paperweights (textbooks).

She got into the elevator alongside a student she recognized from her communications class freshmen year. Dark times.

The student was on his phone. Jackie stole a quick glance at his phone and saw that he was watching a video of Superman fighting Weather Wizard. The fight ended relatively quickly. But then again, what could hail do against someone who was fucking bulletproof?

The elevator dinged as it reached Jackie’s floor and she made a mental note to look up the video later as she got off and walked towards her room. Room 427.

She glanced with disgust at the shitty plaque before fitting her key into the lock and opening the door.

Robin was gone, naturally. Her and Jackie seemed to run on opposite schedules. Whereas Jackie tended to occupy the room in the evenings and at night, Robin would prance in at the early hours of the morning, waking Jackie as she fumbled around in the dark before finally sleeping well into the afternoon.

The random roommate selection was a bad idea apparently. Who knew?

Jackie dropped her backpack unceremoniously onto the floor by her bed before pulling out her laptop and booting it up. She clicked open the internet and typed ‘Superman’ into the search engine, pulling up dozens of new articles and videos about his newest villain encounter.

She clicked into one of the videos that portrayed the end of the battle. It showed Superman tying up a defeated Weather Wizard with a steel bar and handing him to the police.

Jackie was about to exit out when she suddenly paused. The last few seconds of the video showed Superman talking into a comm before flying off with a startled look on his face.

That didn’t bode well.

Jackie could look into it further, but it wasn’t any of her motherfucking business. What the capes did was their problem, not hers.

All she is, is a junior chemistry major at Metropolis University. Nothing more, nothing less. End of fucking story.

And yet…

Maybe it couldn’t hurt just to quick hack the Justice League’s floating frat house in space?

No. It could. It definitely could. Between Cyborg and whichever bird Batman has monitoring the systems at the moment, Jackie would be smoked out within seconds. Especially if there was something going on and they were paying more attention for potential intruders.

Yeah. Better just to lay low. Don’t want an angry visit from Gotham’s resident bat furry. Hell no.

Besides, if something big really was going on, they would send out the All Call over open radio waves.

Jackie shut down her laptop and set it aside before collapsing onto her bed with a content sigh.

This was the life. Go to classes, cry between classes because you didn’t understand a single damn thing the professor said, eat crappy college food after classes, cry about the fact hot dogs should not taste like that, go to dorm, cry about the fact that your crappy roommate is a slob, do homework, cry because you still don’t understand a single damn thing that the professor said, go to bed, cry yourself to sleep because college sucks and you didn’t choose a major where you could go hang out with friends at a bar every other night.

Damn. Hormones. Jackie wondered not for the first time that week if she was PMSing. Puberty was a fucking bitch before, but this was something she wasn’t sure she would ever get used to.

Homework. Right. She still had a crap-ton of homework to get done.

With an angry growl, Jackie kicked over her backpack with her foot. Fuck this. She was taking a nap, and no one could stop her.

She’s in college for fucks sake. Her dads always did encourage her to be independent after all, if for different reasons.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I know I was going to pace myself posting chapters but...
> 
> Here's chapter 2!

A week after the Weather Wizard incident, everyone had more or less moved on and elected to forget the whole thing. Nothing noteworthy had really happened. The fight was pretty short.

Sure, it was weird that Weather Wizard appeared in Metropolis of all place, but it wasn’t exactly shocking that a villain crossed into another hero’s territory. It did happen once every blue moon.

Jackie still found it kind of odd, so she did a little digging after her p-chem exam (don’t think about it, don’t think about it) and found that Weather Wizard wasn’t the only villain to cross borders that Wednesday.

The most notable cases other than Metropolis were Central City getting hit by Scarecrow, Cheetah finding her way to Gotham, and Captain Cold attacking Coast City.

This was definitely planned somehow, whether it be by the villains themselves or someone higher up the food chain.

Not that it really mattered. Jackie was sure that the bat furry and his posse of saints had everything under control. There was no way that they hadn’t also noticed something was up. Besides, the All Call hadn’t been sent. If something were really wrong, they would have started drafting other freelance heroes by now.

Jackie stared at the open Word document, it seemingly taunting her with its blankness. The paper was due for her art history class by the end of the week, even though they had just turned one in. The textbook for the class was almost as bad as her genetics one from last year, you just couldn’t understand a damn thing. So, she wasn’t really sure what she was supposed to write about.

Maybe it was time to go grab the sacrificial goat for the inspiration gods.

Across the room from her, by some miracle, Robin was up and about before noon and was munching loudly on a bag of potato chips while she did the reading for her psych class.

Jackie wasn’t bothered. Not at all. No way. She was used to annoying people, having lived with a bunch of them for the longest time. This was no different, except there was only one of her. So, no. She wasn’t vexed by her roommate. All she wanted to do was grab the bag out of Robin’s hands and smack her with it before chucking it out the fucking window. That’s all.

Jackie clenched her fist over her laptop as a particularly loud crunch made its way across the room.

She was about to tell her roommate (in the nicest way possible of course) where she could shove those chips when a knock broke the silence first.

“Hey, Robin! You in there?”

Both Jackie and Robin’s heads swung towards the door. Robin stood up from her desk and brushed the crumbs off her pants before walking to the ancient door and swinging it open.

Jackie recognized Robin’s unintentional savior as one of her roommate’s friends from down the hall. Brittany or Bree or something.

“Brianna!” Robin squealed.

Ah. There we go.

“Robin! Guess what!” Brianna (apparently) said excitedly as she invited herself into the room.

Jackie didn’t mind. Jackie wasn’t bitter. She reached for her pair of earbuds, fully intending to block out what was sure to be a tediously long conversation that would probably boil down to nothing interesting.

Instead of waiting for an answer, Brianna powered on ahead. “Aliens attacked Gotham!”

Jackie froze. Okay. Never mind. She takes back what she was thinking a minute ago. This could be interesting.

“Aliens?” Robin questioned as she shut the door. “What would aliens want in Gotham? Did Batman kick their asses?”

“You would think,” Brianna said with a wiggle, “but apparently they hit Wayne Tower while Nightwing was fighting Batman. Or at least according to the news report. They got away.”

Nightwing fought Batman?

What?

While the two teens chatted, Jackie pulled up a new web browser and started doing some digging.

Yup, Brianna had been right. The fight between Nightwing and Batman was pretty well documented with several videos at different angles. Another quick search revealed a fuzzy video of what appeared to be aliens leaving Wayne Tower through a broken window near the R&D labs.

Well shit.

Where was Red Robin and Robin (vigilante, not roommate) throughout all this?

Jackie studied the fight videos carefully, looking for any clue as to why the two vigilantes would be duking it out. Nightwing’s movements were choppy, disorganized rather than his usual flippantly acrobatic style. Batman appeared to not be fighting him at full strength either, pulling punches and only trying to restrain him.

Mind control then?

That would make sense, but who could be strong enough to mind control one of the brood? The Bat made sure that all his little birdies knew how to combat mind control and they had tech to combat this sort of shit. So, either this was something else or someone insanely powerful, like Martian Manhunter kind of powerful.

Well fuck. Maybe it was time to hack the Watchtower after all.

Yeah, that’s still a no. She wasn’t that desperate. Not worth losing her freedom over.

The Justice League could handle it. They’ve handled out-and-out alien invasions without help before. Besides, what could Jackie do? In her current state she wouldn’t stand a chance against even a mugger, much less an actual alien with possible mind controlling abilities.

Hell, she smacked her arm on the doorframe while leaving for her first class a few hours ago.

Her clumsiness alone would ensure that she shot herself in the foot long before actually engaging with the enemy.

Then again, muscle memory was a thing. It was possible…

Naw. Not her problem. She was sure that the heroes would figure everything out long before she had to try and intervene. They got this.

* * *

They didn’t got this. More attacks, more casualties, more tech stolen. Things were getting out of hand pretty quickly. The alien fuckers were starting to get bolder. Villains were being controlled into attacking seemingly random cities while heroes started turning on each other.

It wasn’t uncommon to turn on the news and see Martin Manhunter doing some sort of mind battle with a psychically whammied hero. Even heroes not associated with the Justice League were being hit now.

Something big was going down.

And Jackie was starting to feel guilty ‘cause she might just have the solution to all the League’s problems. Then again, maybe not. There was no guarantee that it could work, and if it didn’t, the sacrifice would have been in vain. There were so many ways this could go wrong.

Yet the longer she waited, the more dire the situation was becoming.

With a groan, Jackie watched on her laptop as Martin Manhunter and Superman fought against a clearly incapacitated Shazam. Fuck. They got the Big Red Cheese.

Clearly, whatever mind control being used was reversible, Jackie had seen reports of Nightwing out in Gotham since the incident, but it was still unnerving that these alien fuckers could get to a hero so easily. That was really dangerous. They were really lucky that Superman hadn’t been whammied yet. Or Wonder Woman. Or hell, even Batman.

Maybe they had found a way to counteract the control? But then why were there still reports of heroes clearly being controlled?

Jackie wouldn’t know unless she came out of hiding. Great.

She knew she was being selfish; she knew what she was doing could get other hurt, or maybe even killed, but Jackie had already given up her life for the greater good once. She wanted a chance to live for herself.

She had built a good life. Sure, it was a little lonely at times, but this was the type of thing she could only dream of in the past. A life, a _real_ life, lived just for herself.

Going now would mean giving it all up. There was no way she would be able to come back after this. She would fall too far behind in school to finish out the semester, assuming the heroes would even let her return. There would be no going back.

With a groan, Jackie tossed her laptop onto her bed and fell into her pillows. She glanced at the digital clock sitting on the side table next to her head and groaned again. She had her p-chem class in another hour. It was probably time to start packing up and getting ready to go.

She leaned up slightly and glanced down at her laptop. It was still playing the same clip of the fight against Shazam.

The fact that they got to Shazam was proof enough that they could really get to anyone. Who would be next? Who would be hurt? Who would have to die before Jackie finally got involved?

Jackie ran a hand over her face.

Tomorrow. She would make up her mind on what to do tomorrow.

For now, it was time to go get that p-chem exam score back. Who knows, depending how bad she did, maybe she would want to bail on this whole college thing.

Having decided this, she sat up and packed her backpack. She was about to leave when she heard a small chime coming from a drawer in the shitty dresser the school has supplied her.

Jackie was about to dismiss it and leave when she suddenly remembered that she only had one device she left the ringtone on for.

Shit.

She discarded her backpack unceremoniously onto the floor and ran to the dresser, pulling open the top drawer before sifting through the miscellaneous clutter in it until she found what she was looking for.

A small yellow comm locked onto a single radio frequency.

She placed the device into her ear and pressed a small button on its side. Instantly, a deep voice started playing through the speaker.

“Attention allies of the Justice League,” Batman’s voice boomed out. A small shiver ran down Jackie’s spine. “Earth is currently under threat. We are sending this call out to anyone who will listen. The situation is dire. An emergency meeting on the Watchtower has been called for all available heroes. Temporary access to the Watchtower teleporters will be granted to those who respond to this message. Report to the nearest teleporter at-”

Batman then started to rattle off a bunch of teleporter locations in major cities.

The All Call.

Double shit.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, fine. Pacing myself is out the window. But I am already up to 10,000 words in my drafts and not even half of those are posted. I kinda figure that either you wait now, or you wait when I finally hit writers block or a bad case of exams.
> 
> Pick your poison.

Gotham was just as cold, dark, and grimy as Jackie had remembered. It was a stark contrast to the bright, cheery atmosphere of Metropolis, making it hard to believe that the two cities were only a state apart.

Unfortunately, it was dark by the time Jackie’s bus hit city limits. Night was not really a good time to be wandering around the hellish city; it was when all the crazies slithered out of the storm drains.

True to form, Jackie was barely off the bus when some idiot attempted to mug her. A swift kick to the balls quickly convinced him it wasn’t a good idea. Hurrah for muscle memory.

Muggers were the least of her problems though. Gotham was basically crazy central. Her best bet to avoid running into an insane villain or equally insane cape was to find a hotel and get the fuck off the streets.

She could grab what she came for tomorrow morning when there wasn’t a 50/50 chance of having a run in with a Gotham-born lunatic.

As Jackie sped walked down the street looking for a hotel, she had an epiphany. Back in her old life, she had always wondered what kind of idiots roamed the streets at night practically begging to be mugged or killed. Now she knew. People without a choice.

Dammit. Three guys hanging out at a street corner had started following her. This was bad. Once mugger caught by surprise she could handle. Three guys, one of which was definitely armed, probably not. Muscle memory would only get her so far.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the flicker of a shadow.

Okay. She could do this.

Despite the screaming of her instincts, Jackie turned down the next alley, essentially trapping herself. Sure enough, the three guys followed, one of them laughing at her apparent stupidity.

“Looks like the girl wanted to be caught boys,” He proclaimed loudly to his buddies with a wicked grin. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it fun.”

“Damn right this is going to be fun,” Jackie said boldly, flashing a smirk of her own.

Right on cue, Red Robin dropped from the roof above sweeping the talkative guy’s legs out. He fell with an angry yell but before he had the chance to lash out, Red Robin followed up with a nasty jab to the face knocking him out.

The thug with the gun pulled it out and shakily aimed it at Red Robin. Red Robin flew at the man, disarming him with a vicious blow resulting in a loud _crack_ echoing throughout the alley. The guy shrieked and pulled his broken arm to his chest with a half sob before he too was laid out unconscious on the dirty Gotham street.

The final guy decided to cut his losses and tried to make a run for it only to find a grapple wrapped tightly around his ankles, pulling him to the ground. His head bounced once against the pavement with a muffled thud putting him out like a light.

Red Robin turned to face Jackie, the dim streetlights illuminating the whites of his domino mask like some kind of spectral being. “Are you alright?” A small sound escaped Jackie’s throat before she could stop it. Red Robin interpreted the sound as fear. “It’s okay. They can’t hurt you now. Can I walk you home?”

“Yeah, no. I’m fine, thanks,” Jackie stuttered. “I’m actually a tourist. I arrived late and was looking for a hotel when these jackasses jumped me.”

“Oh,” Red Robin paused, “I can walk you to the nearest hotel if you’d like. It’s not five stars, but it isn’t too bad.”

Jackie’s throat tightened. “Yeah. That would be great. Thanks.”

After tying up the thugs, Red Robin led her out of the alley and down the street. As he walked, he kept glancing over at Jackie. It was a little unnerving, but Jackie figured it was just his big nerd brain working overtime.

“So, what brings you to Gotham?” Red Robin finally asked. “Where are you from?”

“I’m a student at Metro U,” Jackie answered carefully, “but I’m originally from Gotham. All my family is still here and there was an emergency, so I decided to come back.”

“Doesn’t sound like you are a tourist to me,” Red Robin said bluntly.

“I don’t consider Gotham my home anymore,” Jackie answered honestly.

Red Robin eyed her again. “I see. Why didn’t you call someone from your family to pick you up? It would have been a lot safer.”

A flash of fondness flooded Jackie’s chest. “Hey, now. Do you interrogate all the victims you save? Or am I just special?”

Red Robin sputtered, causing Jackie to laugh softly. “Naw, I’m just messin’ with ya. I didn’t call them because we haven’t spoken in years and they don’t know I’m here. I didn’t part with them on the best of terms and honestly, I’m not really lookin’ forward to the confrontation. Dumb, I know.”

An emotion Jackie couldn’t peg flickered across Red Robin’s face. It was gone a split second later, causing her to wonder if she’d just imagined it.

“Yeah,” He said finally. “I know how that feels. Anyway, we’re here. Stay safe Miss…”

“Jackie, Jackie Garcia.”

Red Robin nodded. “Stay safe Miss Garcia.”

With that, he took out his grapple and flew off into the night. As she watched him go, a flurry of emotions made their way across Jackie’s mind. She quickly shook them away and marched into the hotel.

* * *

The next morning, the run in with Red Robin still weighed heavily on Jackie’s mind. She tried not to focus on it, there was still a job to do after all, but it still bugged her all the same.

At least Baby Bird looked good. Well, as good as one could under the circumstances she supposed. It couldn’t be easy trying to protect the city alone while the rest of the Bats did God knows what. It was painfully obvious that was what was going on. Batman, Nightwing, Robin, or pretty much anyone else other than Red Robin hadn’t been spotted since the All Call went out several days ago.

Poor Double R, always getting the short end of the stick.

Hopefully, Jackie’s next move would be enough to make up for all the shit that went down.

Yeah. Right. Forgiveness never came that easily.

Brushing the thought aside with practiced ease, Jackie got back to the task at hand and surveyed the docks. By some stroke of good fortune, a drug bust had occurred on this particular dock two nights ago, clearing it of most undesirable company. Sneaking into the warehouse near the dock was a relatively simple task, though avoiding the dock's security cameras was a bit more difficult.

Not that it would really matter. After her plan was in motion, stealth would be out the window anyhow. There were bigger things to worry about at the moment than if Oracle thought Jackie was a thug for Penguin. Besides, Jackie had claimed this warehouse long before any of the major crime lords did.

It was an excellent place to hide away during Gotham’s more temperamental days.

Jackie made her way to the back of the warehouse. Her eyes scanned the yellowed weeds growing in the coarse dirt flush against the back of the warehouse until she spotted a particular patch that looked slightly dissimilar to its surroundings.

Jackie drew a pocketknife out of her jeans and started probing the site until she felt the knife slip between a piece of camouflaged fabric and dirt. There.

She used the knife to pry the fabric off the dirt in a wave of dead grass and dust revealing a round, metal grate.

With a grunt, she lifted the grate and set it aside before lowering herself down into the newly unearthed hole. After she found her footing on the small steps carved into the side of the rock, she pulled the grate back into place and carefully made her way down.

At the bottom of the hole was a tunnel that was hardly tall enough for her to walk fully upright in. Jackie pulled out a penlight and turned it on, illuminating the path before her.

As she started down the tunnel, a wave of nostalgia hit her.

Jackie had first found the tunnel back when she was a kid living on the streets. It was after the first snowfall of that year, and she had just been kicked out of the warehouse by dock workers.

By some stroke of luck, she had noticed a flash of metal beneath the freshly fallen snow and went to investigate. A blast of wind had half-knocked the tarp off the grate, revealing the tunnel beneath. Jackie hadn’t really cared about it at the time. Tunnels like those got really cold in the winter, so she couldn’t use it for shelter.

It wasn’t until the next summer when she was on the run from a gang that she remembered the hidden panel and went to investigate.

The best Jackie could figure, the original owners of the warehouse had built the hideout as a place to stash the more… illicit merchandise until they were either killed or jailed. The new owners hadn’t known about it, and it had sat forgotten until Jackie unearthed it again.

Since then, Jackie had used it as a shelter during the warmer months until the cool fall air made it unbearable cold. Even after she was taken off the streets, she occasionally would return after a particularly bad fight with her new family. It was the one place in Gotham that they knew nothing about. She had only ever trusted its location to one other person, and they were long gone.

For years, Jackie had maintained the hideout, it becoming somewhat of an unofficial home to her. At the very least it sure felt like coming home after a long time away.

As Jackie came to the end of the tunnel, she clicked off the penlight and felt along the wall where she knew a light switch was. She flicked on the lights, revealing a large cavern. Technology and equipment littered one half of the room while pieces of furniture cluttered the other.

Jackie walked over to the half with the furniture and collapsed onto an old, dusty couch with a content sigh. She closed her eyes for a minute and just soaked in the comforting feeling of being back here again.

The feeling was washed away as she remembered why she was here in the first place.

With a groan, Jackie forced herself to her feet and walked over to the technology side where an old computer system sat on an equally old desk. She booted it up, picking impatiently at her nails as the ancient device tried to decide whether it was alive or not.

Finally, the screen popped to life declaring an operating system that was ten years out of date. She opened up some files and scanned them quick before copying a few to a flash drive. Once the download was complete, she pocketed the flash drive and was in the process of shutting down the computer when a small flash of red caught her eye. She glanced over, spotting a small red comm.

She grabbed the comm and rolled it around in her hand, savoring the feeling of plastic in her palm. She debated dropping it on the desk again when, against her better judgement, she placed it into her ear and pressed the power button.

A small voice alerted her that the comm was powering on. Once the device was on, Jackie listened carefully for any signs of life over the line. Nothing. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed.

She was about to turn the device back off again when a voice started playing out over the line.

“Little Wing.”

The air left Jackie’s chest in a mix between a sob and a gasp. He sounded just like he did in her memory.

“If you are hearing this, I’m sorry,” Nightwing said. “I am so, _so_ sorry. We all are. Please come home. _Please_. At… at least let us know that you’re alright.”

There was a pause over the line.

“We caught him, you know,” Nightwing continued sadly. “We caught him. He was hired by Black Mask to frame you. I guess it worked, huh?”

A small noise that sounded like a half-sob echoed across the line. “I guess I can’t blame you. I wouldn’t want to come back either if I was treated the way you always are. I want to say that we can fix this, that we can make this better. But Little Wing, that’s all up to you. If you never want to see us again, well, it would be our own faults. Just… just let Alfie know that you’re alive at least. He’s pretty worried. We all are.”

Another pause.

“I love you Little Wing. Jason. Stay safe.”

Jackie blinked away tears as the recording started playing again from the top. She quickly yanked the comm from her ear and threw it against the stone wall. It clattered onto the floor but didn’t break. Of course not. It was made to Batman’s standards.

Frustrated, Jackie wiped desperately at the tears leaking from her eyes with her hands before hobbling over to the couch and sitting heavily on it.

Fuck.

She shouldn’t be getting so emotional.

That message was for Jason Todd, not Jacqueline Garcia. Jason Todd wasn’t here right now, Jacqueline Garcia was.

Fuck.

Jackie ran the sleeve of her jacket over her face one final time before standing up and striding towards a large metal cylinder in the back of the cavern, hidden behind dozens of boxes that she knew to contain nothing but instruction manuals for various equipment.

She forcefully shoved the boxes out of the way and set her hand on the small glass window resting in the metal. A thin layer of frost covered the glass, making it difficult to see inside. With an enraged roar, she scrubbed the frost away with her bare hand, feeling the sting of cold against her flesh.

“Fuck you!” She shouted angrily as she peered down into the now exposed window.

Behind the icy glass laid the prone, frozen body of Jason Todd.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've been getting these out rapid-fire lately, but I have exams for 3/4 classes and a paper due for the other one within the next week and a half. So... Probably don't be expecting anything for a little while.
> 
> Or expect the unexpected. It's up to you.

_4.8 years ago_

“Thanks for letting me stay here,” Jason Todd said, the weariness from the past few days leaking into his voice. “This is the only place I could think of going that was shielded enough to throw off the League. Three fucking cheers for alien tech.”

Jacqueline Garcia flashed her friend a sad smile from where she sat cross legged on the floor. “What happened?”

Jason sighed. “They think I killed someone. Some goon got his brains blown out by a guy in a red helmet. Naturally, I was the first suspect. Never mind the fact that I don’t have a monopoly on guns and the color red. Fuck!” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Why do they never believe me? You would think that after the last time, they would have a little more faith in me.”

Jackie hummed softly.

Jason looked around the basement, eyes landing on a giant metal cylinder in a corner of the room. “That wasn’t here last time. What is it?”

“A gift. Cryochamber,” Jackie elaborated, pushing herself to her feet.

“Why would you need one of those? I thought you just discarded your body when you were done with it.”

“I do,” Jackie said. She walked over to the cryochamber and ran a hand over the control panel. “This isn’t for me.”

Jason shot her a bemused look. “Not for you?”

“Nope,” Jackie agreed with a secretive grin. “Not for me. It’s for you.”

“Me?” Jason asked, the bemusement growing more pronounced. “I don’t get it.”

“Jay,” Jackie said softly, her brown eyes meeting Jason’s blue-green ones. “I’m giving you this body. I won’t need it anymore.”

“What?”

“You said it yourself, I discard my body when I’m done with it. I won’t need it anymore.”

“Why would I need, or want, it?” Jason asked bluntly.

“They don’t believe you,” Jackie said sadly.

“So? They’ll realize it wasn’t me. Eventually. They always do.”

“And then the damn cycle repeats,” Jackie growled. She walked over to Jason and placed a hand on his broad chest. “Listen, this is it. This is your chance to escape. This body already has an identity, built from the time it was a baby with a perfectly legitimate paper trail. One hundred percent foolproof. Not even the Bats could find it. Just one girl among seven billion people.”

“You want me to abandon everything,” Jason snapped.

“You’ve already abandoned yourself,” Jackie countered. “I am a cosmic entity. I have lived thousands upon thousands of different lives as just as many different species, yet even I know who I am. You do not. Take this chance, find yourself.”

She stepped back, giving Jason space. “Think about it, please. I want to give you a chance.”

Jason mulled over the offer for a minute. “Would I be able to switch back if I wanted to? You’re leaving Earth permanently. You wouldn’t be here to help me switch again later.”

Jackie flashed a grin. “Of course. I’ve ran across some pretty powerful, as you called it, _alien tech_ in my previous lives. I’ve already recreated some psychic technology that would allow you to switch between bodies whenever you want.”

Jason sighed as he ran a hand through his two-toned hair. “They’ll find me. Something will happen and they’ll find me.”

“Probably,” Jackie acknowledged. “But it will give you a chance to find yourself first.”

Jason stared at the cryochamber, his face giving away nothing. Finally, he turned to Jackie and said, “Alright. What do I need to do?”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M STILL ALIVE!!!
> 
> But my GPA might not be. Best not to think about it.
> 
> Anyways, things are picking up speed! I should warn you, updates will be a little slower from here on out. We are hitting critical points in the story and I want to take my time and make sure they’re good and don’t undermine what’s been built so far. I’m sure the majority of my awesome readers would prefer quality over quantity.
> 
> Seriously though, you all have been awesome! Thank you for the support thus far, I really appreciate it.

Jason Todd was Jacqueline Garcia; Jacqueline Garcia was Jason Todd. They were two sides of the same coin. One male, one female.

At first, they had to switch between bodies fairly frequently. It was difficult adapting to a completely different body, much less one of the other gender. It had taken nearly half a year before they could function properly as Jackie and transition almost entirely into that new identity.

At that point, Jackie had considered rejoining the superhero game under a new persona, but she eventually gave up on the idea when she realized that Omni hadn’t been interested in anything other than a civilian life and, as a consequence, Jacqueline Garcia had no training. Starting from scratch with an almost adult body was not something that Jackie was interested in doing, especially considering that the whole point of this endeavor was to have a new shot at life.

And so, she went to college. Fortunately, Omni had finished high school with top marks, so it wasn’t difficult for Jackie to get into college a couple of years later than the rest of her “peers.”

Since Jason Todd had always been a good student, it wasn’t hard to translate that to Jacqueline Garcia.

Jackie threw herself into her schoolwork, paying for college using funds that Jason as Red Hood had set aside with some foresight. Once college had gotten going, Jackie rarely bothered to swap bodies, electing to mostly stay with the one she was in.

While she liked both bodies equally, she knew it was dangerous to go out as Jason, especially in Gotham where the body was stashed. Besides, it would also be hard to explain why Jason fucking Todd just waltzed into a biochem class.

So, yeah. At this point it had been just over than four months ago when she last switched bodies back at the beginning of summer break.

Staring at her male body now, Jackie considered her options.

She had to get the flash drive to the Bats, one way or another. How she did that, well, that was where things got complicated.

Obviously, there was no way to get the flash drive to the Watchtower short of a teleportation pad and god tier levels of hacking. Not really feasible considered Tim had almost certainly made upgrades to Watchtower security and, as good as Jackie was, she wasn’t a match for him. That left the Manor.

Jackie briefly considered mailing it to the Manor but quickly gave up on the idea. It would take too long, and things were already time sensitive as it was. Besides, this was Gotham. With her luck, some idiot villain’s new plan would involve hijacking the mail or some bullshit.

She could of course just stroll up to the front door and hand it off to whoever was there. Boom. Done.

Except there was no real good way of doing that.

If she went as Jackie, there would be a _lot_ of questions asked without easy answers. A knowing the Bats, they would get them. Whether she liked it or not. It would be the end of the road for her life as Jackie. Best case scenario, she would be put on dozens of watchlists. Worst case scenario, they would figure it out.

Going as Jason… would be even worse.

Jackie Garcia they might eventually give up on. But Jason Todd, him they would hunt to the ends of the earth. They would rip the city apart brick by brick looking for him. Worse of all, they likely would find him. The Bats were nothing if not relentless.

Escape would be impossible.

Fine. So, her best bet was to stay as Jackie and find a way to somehow get the flash drive to the Manor. She could do that.

* * *

Three hours and two shots of vodka later she was standing just outside the range of the Manor’s cameras wearing nothing but sweats and a black ski mask.

She definitely looked like someone casing the place.

Good thing the Manor was far enough from nosy neighbors that no one would see. Thank god for Bruce’s paranoia. Otherwise this mission would end long before it really even begun.

Jackie crept along the woods on the outskirts of the Manor, keeping as best she could to the shadows. She had no doubt that she would be caught on film as soon as she was within range and that the alarm would be set off, but she hoped that the Bats would think that she was just an ordinary burglar and let the police handle it.

It would be suspicious if Batman showed up every time someone tried to rob Bruce Wayne’s manor after all.

All she had to do was get in close enough and this whole ordeal would be over. Then she could get back to her life in Metropolis. She was already half a week behind in her classes and trying to catch up was going to be a giant pain in the ass.

Jackie ducked her head down as she neared the looming iron fence separating her from her former life. She would be lying if she said there wasn’t anything she missed about Gotham. She even sometimes missed the Bats in all their brooding glory.

But she wasn’t ready to give up on her new life just yet. Or ever, really.

She caught a glint in the dim night out of the corner of her eye but resisted the urge to look at it knowing it was a camera. Better to play dumb and keep her head down to minimize unintentional disclosure of identifying information.

Jackie stopped within spitting distance of the fence. This was close enough. Time to enact her brilliant plan.

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the flash drive that she had taped to her penlight. She clicked on the penlight and gently tossed the device a few times to test its weight before chucking it over the fence.

She took off into the woods before it even hit the plush lawn on the other side, avoiding as many of the cameras as she could as she ran.

There. Done.

Between Bruce’s fancy gadgets and the penlight, finding the fucker would be a breeze. Her obligation was met. A job well done if she did say so herself.

Now she could go back to Metropolis with a clear conscious.

* * *

72 hours later Jackie realized her mistake when the Justice League held a press conference asking for the mysterious stranger to come forward regarding the ‘anonymous information.’

Fuck.

Jackie buried her face in her pillow and groaned loudly, attracting Robin’s attention from the other side of the room. Robin gave her an odd look before shrugging and turning back to whatever anime of the week she was on.

This whole thing was a fucking disaster. Jackie had known that the Justice League was going to be nosy, but she never would have guessed that they would send out a public broadcast or anything. She had assumed that Batman would try to track her down after the crisis was adverted and confront her then. Batman style. The only thing going public could mean was that something was wrong.

Of course, she had left the information quite literally on the doorstep of Batman’s civilian identity, which must be driving him crazy. But Bruce would _never_ ask the Justice League for help over something like that. He would literally rather die than let the word ‘help’ leave his lips.

She pulled her face from the pillow and rested her chin on it as she glared down at her laptop. Jackie knew better than to shoot the messenger, but damn it! She wanted so much to shoot the offending device to hell, but her art history midterm paper was on there. Better to wait until the end of the semester when she made the yearly bonfire out of her textbooks.

Jackie sighed heavily.

Her plan flopped in the most fucking theatric way possible. At this point, she only had two options left: leave the situation as is or come clean.

Neither one sounded too appealing. Leaving the situation meant putting all her trust into the Justice League that they would eventually figure out the problem. And they had been doing such a fan-fucking-tastic job lately that it was honestly kind of a crapshoot whether or not the Earth would be destroyed by the alien fuckers.

Coming clean seemed like even less of a good idea though. While the JL might be full of airheads, they would have to be complete idiots to not realize she used the tech. That would bring up all sorts of questions that Jackie had been trying to avoid in the first place.

Of fucking course, Jackie already knew what she was going to do. The same drive to help people that had put her in those cursed pixie boots in the first place was still there. Despite her best attempt, she couldn’t let this one go.

Too much was at stake.

If it were just her life on the line, she would say fuck it and move on. But it wasn’t. It wasn’t just her life that was in danger. The attacks were getting more vicious and bolder. Several civilians had already died in Central during the last mind-controlled villain attack.

Thank fuck a hero hadn’t accidentally killed anyone yet. Something like that was exceedingly hard to live with, even if you weren’t in control.

That did bring up the question, now what?

Going back to Gotham would take too long and there was no guarantee that a Bat would be there to help. Trying to hack the Watchtower would, again, be an unbelievably bad and an ultimately fruitless endeavor.

That left trying to contact a nearby hero to gain Watchtower access. Not an easy thing to do under normal circumstances since they usually only showed up during a crime or for a supervillain smackdown. But now, with everything going on, it seemed that both heroes and villains were more than a little reluctant to hit the streets knowing they could be whammied at any time. Hell, the last time Superman had been seen was the Weather Wizard attack.

Guess it was a good thing Jackie knew where Metropolis’ resident Man of Steel lived then.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I hate to admit it, but I might have contracted a minor case of writers block for this story, It's one of the reasons I started my other story. However, I am not giving up on this story, I already know where I want to take it, I am just having problems figuring out how to get from point A to point B. Once I work that out, I actually think I'll be able to update fairly frequently.
> 
> In the mean time, I appreciate the patience and I'll try to keep updating as I iron out the kinks.

This was a bad idea. Showing up at Superman’s civilian residence was just begging to get laser-blasted into next week.

But Jackie as too tired to think up a new plan. She just wanted this fucking thing over with as soon as possible, laser to the face or not.

Jackie knocked on the door before she could give herself time to back out. She could hear shuffling behind the door before it opened a minute later to reveal a pretty woman with dark hair and eyes.

Lois Lane.

Jackie had always admired Lois ever since she had met her as Jason back when he was a kid. Lois was a tough-as-nails reporter who took no one’s crap, not even Batman’s. The first time Jason saw Lois stand up to Bruce, he had asked her to marry him right then and there. That woman was something else.

It made Jackie feel pretty guilty about what she was going to do next.

“Can I help you?” Lois asked warily. Crap. Something must have shown on her face.

Jackie cleared her throat. “Right. I was wondering if Clark’s home.”

“Not at the minute, please come back later,” Lois said evenly as she started to shut the door.

Jackie shot out a hand and caught the door. “See, it’s rather urgent and has to do with certain red-and-blue spandexed activities. I’m afraid I can’t take no for an answer.”

Jackie could see the moment Lois understood what she had just implied. A look of panic flashed across the reporter’s face before it returned to indifference. Lois doubled-down and pushed harder against the door.

“I don’t know what you are talking about and I really must insist that you leave now,” Lois demanded calmly. “Goodbye.”

Okay. This was not going well. Jackie really should have thought this through better. Damn.

With a frustrated groan, Jackie leaned forcefully into the door. She made eye contact with Lois and said slowly, “I know everything. Let me in and we can talk this out. Or don’t and see what I’ll do next. Your choice.”

Lois’ face twitched with uncertainty for a moment before she stepped away from the door. The sudden loss of pressure caused Jackie to stumble into the apartment.

“Thanks.”

The older woman rolled her eyes angrily as she shut the door. “Not like I had much of a choice. So, what do you want?”

“Like I said, I’m here for Clark,” Jackie said. Seeing the look of pure fury Lois was giving her, she quickly elaborated, “No! Not like that. I’m not trying to threaten him or anything, honest! I need to talk to the Justice League, and he is my best bet.”

“Why would you need to talk to them?” Lois interrogated.

Jackie sighed and habitually ran a hand through her hair. “It’s complicated. I’m not entirely sure. I gave them some information and then they sent out a broadcast requesting to speak with me.”

“Oh, _oh,_ ” Lois said, her eyes widening and her shoulders tensing. “You’re the… Never mind. Please, come in. Sit down.”

Lois gestured for Jackie to follow her to the living room. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you know where we live, considering you also know who Batman is.”

“I guess,” Jackie echoed half-heartedly. She sat down on the couch Lois showed her to. “Thanks.”

“Wait here,” Lois ordered, “I’ll go call Clark.”

Lois disappeared into the next room over, leaving Jackie alone. She glanced around the room, making note of all the changes. The last time she had been here was about two months before everything went down, if she was doing the math right. Feels like an eternity ago.

The thing that stood out the most to Jackie were the pictures that decorated the wall. There were a lot more than the last time she was here. Some she remembered, but now there were a bunch with of Clark and Lois next to a teenager she didn’t recognize. It took her a moment to realize that is was Jon.

Damn. The kid really grew up. Of course he did, but for the first time, it finally started to hit Jackie just how long she had actually been gone.

Jon had probably just started his last year of high school. That meant Damien had to have too.

Jackie absentmindedly wondered if they were still friends.

She could still remember the terrible-twosome terrorizing the super community from time to time. It had been fun to wind them both up and set them lose on a poor, unsuspecting cape. Green Arrow had been on the receiving end of a prank more than a few times back in the day.

Jackie could still remember the look on GA’s face that one time his hair gel had been replaced with superglue.

Good times. Good times.

Lois reappeared in the doorway a few minutes later, snapping Jackie out of her thoughts. “Clark is on his way. He should be here-” There was a flash of red and blue as a tall figure landed on the balcony. “Now. He should be here now.”

Lois walked towards the sliding door as Superman quickly came in before pulling the blinds shut behind him.

“Who are you?” Clark snarled angrily. The hair on Jackie’s arms stood up at the unspoken threat. It took all her willpower not to jump to her feet and shove the piece of kryptonite she had stashed in her pocket up his ass.

“ _Clark_ ,” Lois admonished. She glanced apologetically at Jackie, as though she didn’t do almost the exact same thing not even ten minutes before.

Jackie held up her hand. “It’s fine. I understand.” And she did. “Now can we get to the important stuff? I want to get this over with.”

“Fine,” Clark growled, still glaring threateningly at Jackie. “I have orders to bring you to the Watchtower.”

“I expected as much,” Jackie replied. “Is there a teleporter nearby?”

“Oh, so there is something you don’t know,” Clark hissed, earning him a smack from Lois. He shot his wife a look before turning back to Jackie. “Yes. We’ll go there now.”

Turned out that the teleporter was not that far from Metro U. A short drive later (Jackie refused to fly with an enraged Superman), and they found themselves in an alley behind a coffee shop that Jackie had frequented once or twice.

Jackie whistled appreciably as she looked around. “Fuck. Even the alleys here sparkle,” She noted with a grin. Superman shot her a disapproving glare at her use of language. “So, where’s the teleporter?”

Instead of responding, Superman shoved her roughly through what looked like a service entrance to the coffee shop. Her vision blanked as a flash of light blinded her for a second before an unfamiliar room came into focus. She blinked away the stars and looked around as a drab, grey room came into focus.

They had teleporter her into an interrogation room. Dammit.

And Superman was supposed to be the nice one.

Jackie howled with frustration before shooting a glare at the one-way mirror stretching across one end of the room.

“Ya better hope I never get my hands on a piece of kryptonite you fucking bastard,” Jackie spat angrily, knowing Superman was nearby and watching. Never mind the piece she had stashed in a lead-sealed box. Best not to put all her cards on the table.

She was about to go try and hack the lock when the door to the interrogation room opened with a swish, revealing the one person she wanted to see least in the world.

Batman.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> The writer's block has lifted a little, so I managed to eke out another chapter. Hope you enjoy!

“Sit down,” Batman ordered.

Out of sheer habit, Jackie obeyed. Fuck. This was the last thing she wanted to happen. No good deed goes unpunished, huh?

Batman threw a file onto the table before sitting down across from her, his posture tense. If Jackie hadn’t spent years of her life with the man-child, she was sure it would have been intimidating. As it were, she was starting to feel a bit like a rebellious teenager who went to a party when her dad said she couldn’t.

Damn, if that metaphor wasn’t a little too on the nose.

Jackie obediently grabbed the file and flipped through the contents. Most of it was shit she didn’t recognize. Pictures of alien-looking ships, fuzzy pictures of vaguely humanoid figures, incident reports. She continued to examine the papers under the watchful eye of Batman until she hit something she did know: a familiar set of schematics. Ah.

“I don’t get it,” Jackie announced. “I gave you everything I know, what more could you possibly want?”

Batman leaned forward, all broody-like. “Those schematics are for the same technology used by the Alt’et,” He growled.

Alt’et? The aliens? It took a moment for what Batman had said to fully process.

Wait.

That didn’t make sense. Jackie had got the tech from Omni who…

Who had traveled the universe as millions of different species.

Fuck.

It was starting to make sense now.

Omni must have known. That was why they came to Earth specifically. How much of that “I go where the universe sends me” was bullshit? There was no way this was a coincidence.

Jackie was pulled out of her musings by a tingle at the back of her mind. Oh, hell no!

“Stay out of my mind!” She shouted, throwing a mental block at the intruder.

Sure, she knew Martian Manhunter could break it down easily, but not without causing some metal damage. Depending how big of a threat they thought she was, there was about a fifty-fifty chance Batman would tell him to do it.

The probing ceased, much to Jackie’s relief. She’d rather not be essentially lobotomized by her own fucking family. Sadly, it might not be all that out of character for them.

Jackie shifted uncomfortably in her chair as the silence after her outburst stretched on. She knew, logically, that Batman must be having a mental conversation with someone, but it didn’t make it any less unsettling.

The door to the interrogation room opened again, and Jackie couldn’t help but feel her heart leap when she saw Wonder Woman’s tall figure in the doorway.

Wonder Woman had been one of Jason’s favorite superheroes, and that didn’t change much as Jackie. Diana had always been kind to Jason, even when he was ostracized by the other heroes.

Wonder Woman reached to her side and grabbed her golden lasso.

Aaaaand Jackie had forgotten about the Lasso of Truth. Great.

Though… the lasso forced people to tell the truth. Jackie Garcia is not Jason Todd. Maybe, just maybe, she could use that to her advantage.

Wonder Woman glanced at Batman, who nodded to her. She turned to Jackie and uncoiled her lasso enough to tie part of it around her upper arm. Jackie didn’t fight. Trying to avoid this now would only make her look more suspicious and make it harder to escape later.

One way or another, Batman was going to get his answers.

As soon as the lasso was secured, Batman barked out, “What is your name?”

“Jacqueline Garcia.” The words left her mouth unconsciously. Shoot. She couldn’t resist at all. This could get messy, depending what questions were asked.

“What do you know of the Alt’et?”

“Nothing until I came here,” Jackie admitted. “I got the schematics from a friend.” She volunteered the last part in the hope that they wouldn’t prod that open wound too much.

No such luck. “Who is your friend? What is their name?” Batman demanded.

“I don’t know,” Jackie said easily. Wait, what? Didn’t the lasso force people to tell the truth? Or… no. That was the truth. Omni was just a name Jason gave to a universe-traveling being. Beyond that, Jackie really didn’t know much about them.

“How do you not know?”

Ouch. Batman was really twisting the knife in that wound. Fuck. Give a girl a break! “My friend travels around the universe. I only knew them for a couple years before they left. Before they went, they gave me the tech as a gift.”

“Why?”

“I was in a bad place.” The words left Jackie’s mouth forcefully. Fuck again! This was exactly where she didn’t want the conversation to go. “They thought that the tech could help me escape my situation before I did something I would regret.”

Thankfully, Batman didn’t seem to think that was relevant. Though, his next line of questioning was so much worse.

“How did you know Superman’s and my civilian identities?” Batman growled.

No! No, no, no, no! Dammit. There was no way out of this one. It was over.

Jackie’s heart started racing, her stomach twisted, and her head throbbed. She tried to resist the pull of the lasso but couldn’t. Fucking magic.

“I-” Jackie started before her stomach heaved painfully. With a small noise, she leaned over the side of the chair and hurled. The taste of bile and acid burned her mouth. The lasso scalded her arm as it tried to drag the truth out of her. “I-”

“That is enough!” Wonder Woman said angrily. She removed the lasso from Jackie’s arm, much to her relief. As soon as the weapon was removed, the pounding in her skull lessened.

“Wonder Woman,” Batman started irritably.

“I will not be a part of this,” Wonder Woman snapped, cutting him off. “We are treating a civilian as a criminal! You said yourself, there was nothing, _nothing_ in her records to suggest that she poses any sort of threat. All she has done so far is help.”

Her voice softened as she continued. “We are not the law. And even if we were, what ever happened to innocent until proven guilty, Batman? When I first came to man’s world, you were the one that taught me justice. Where is that justice now?”

Right. Like Bruce was ever going to admit he was wrong. Jackie wasn’t holding out hope that Batman was going to let this go, especially not because in his mind, Jackie was the worse kind of threat. She knew something _no one_ was supposed to know, much less a random civilian.

Never mind it wasn’t illegal to know the ‘secret’ identity of superheroes. Yet as far back as Jackie could remember, any time someone figured a capes identity out, the Justice League would descend from the skies and alter their memory using magic or telepathy.

It had always sort of bugged Jason when he was Robin, but back then he had thought the adults knew best. Now though, with experience as both Jason and Jackie, she could finally see how fucked up it actually was.

Jackie _really_ hoped that they didn’t try something like that with her. Most of her memories were centralized on the hero community. It could easily wipe out the vast majority of her life, maybe even put her in a coma.

Damn. More shit to worry about and just another reason why this whole thing was a really bad idea from the start. If she could, she would go to the past and bitch slap herself. As it were, she should have just left good enough alone. Fucking conscious.

Wonder Woman stared down Batman, unmoved by the glare the black-clad man was shooting her. Much to Jackie’s surprise, Batman yielded first.

“Superman,” He bellowed. A red and blue whirl appeared by the door a moment later. “Escort Miss Garcia to the guest lounge. We will continue questioning later.”

Jackie’s heart sunk at the order. The ‘guest lounge’ was designed to look inviting to unsuspecting ‘guests,’ but actually was a highly secure room that even Jackie would have problems escaping unnoticed. At least if they had thrown her in one of the cells, she could have used one of the contingency plans that Batman had built into them in case a supervillain ever locked the heroes in there (as has happened upon occasion).

That meant she would have to escape before they made it to the guest lounge.

Jackie silently promised herself that if she got out of this, she was going to _completely_ drop off the map this time. No more staying near Gotham, no more JL comms, no more doomed missions. Nothing. Just a completely, 100% normal life. Like she had always wanted.

Superman acknowledge Batman’s order with a nod before turning to Jackie. “This way,” He said, gesturing towards the door.

Jackie obediently rose to her feet and followed the alien out of the interrogation room. As soon as Batman was out of eyesight, tension drained out of her shoulders. She hadn’t noticed how much being near her pseudo-dad again had stressed her out.

Jackie and Superman received curious looks from other heroes as they proceeded down the hall. Luckily, Jackie hadn’t been deemed enough of a threat to warrant restraints of any kind, so she could move unrestrained other than Superman’s firm hand latched onto her shoulder.

She reached into her pocket subtly and brushed her fingers along a certain lead box, a plan quickly forming in her mind.

Yeah. That could work.

Jackie waited until they turned down an empty hallway before swiftly pulling out the box. She twisted out of a surprised Superman’s grasp and cracked open the box, revealing a glowing green stone.

The effects were immediate.

Superman made a valiant attempt to swipe the box away from Jackie, but she hopped out of reach. A moment later, the older hero collapsed onto the floor in a heap.

“Why?” He wheezed, looking up accusingly.

Jackie was unmoved. “You brought this upon yourselves,” She said coldly. “I tried to be civil. I tried to help. But you’ve pushed me too far. Fuck all of you! It’s just like last time. Bruce says someone’s a threat, and you all fucking believe him without question. Grow up Clark!”

Jackie set the box down just out of Superman’s reach. She stood up and glanced down at the incapacitated hero. “You’ll be fine. It’s only a shard, and someone will be coming down here soon. Bye, Uncle Clark.”

Superman’s eyes widened at the nickname. Before he could say anything, Jackie was already gone.

She walked briskly, as if she was supposed to be there and knew exactly what she was doing. Jackie had learned early on that you might get weird looks, but if you acted like you should be there, people typically won’t call you out.

It worked, for the most part. Most of the heroes she walked stared for a moment, but only a couple actually looked apprehensive of her.

She entered the teleportation bay and nearly froze.

Talking to Green Arrow by one of the teleportation pads was Nightwing. Great. Just great.

Both heroes paused their conversation at her approach. Jackie nodded towards both of them before walking up to the controls for one of the pads and started punching in coordinates.

Green Arrow started talking again, drawing Nightwing’s attention off of Jackie, though she could tell he was still trying to evaluate if she was a threat or not. Jackie was almost finished and ready to go when alarms started blaring and the bay was cast in a harsh red light.

“Attention Justice League,” Batman’s voice boomed over the intercoms. “An unauthorized person is on the Watchtower. Security breach is a female wearing jeans and a red Metropolis University T-shirt. Threat level undetermined: approach with extreme caution.”

Green Arrow pointed at Jackie. “Hey-”

Jackie cut him off with a groin kick followed by a palm strike to his face. He stumbled back with a pained groan as blood gushed from his nose. Under other circumstances, Jackie might have felt bad, but right now, she was pissed.

She felt the attack coming before she could see it. Jackie ducked as a leg soared over where her head had been. Before Nightwing could recover, she lunged at him with all her weight, catching him off balance and throwing him to the ground. The two grappled for a moment. As Nightwing started to gain the upper hand, Jackie snatched one of the hero’s escrima sticks and clocked him hard with the weapon.

She struggled to free herself as Nightwing recoiled before clicking the button on the weapon and swinging it again. The now electrified weapon made contact with the exposed skin at Nightwing’s neck causing him to cry out at the rush of electricity and allowing for Jackie to scramble away.

She quickly jumped to her feet and frantically started typing on the controls again, only for an automated voice to announce, “User access denied. Lockdown procedures are in effect.”

Dammit.

Before she could give herself time to think about it, Jackie shouted, “Override, Jason Todd. Code Catherine87.”

“Override accepted,” The monotone voice announced. The display lit up as the teleportation pad started to hum.

Nightwing’s breath hitched and Jackie instinctively turned towards the sound. Their eyes met for a split second before Jackie broke eye contact and leapt onto the pad.

“Wait-” Nightwing cried out as the world dissolved in a flash of light, cutting off whatever he was going to say next.

As the world reassembled itself, it struck Jackie like a ton of bricks. Fuck. Her cover was blown.

Now what?


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update time! Sorry for the wait, midterms are in full swing and things have gotten wild. A good chunk of this update is dedicated to flashbacks, but I feel like it is finally time to provide a bit of background info on what led Jason to the point of desperation. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Jackie teleported to New York City. She knew she couldn’t return to Metropolis, and she definitely couldn’t go back to Gotham. This, logically, was the next best choice. It was a city she knew fairly well, and she had a few emergency caches stashed around in places the Bats didn’t know about. Plus, the city was large enough that even the Justice League was going to have a hell of a time trying to track her down.

Immediately after landing in a discreet alley between two restaurants, Jackie walked out into the busy afternoon foot traffic on the sidewalk and did her best to blend in with the commuters.

She knew that even in this crowd, her red shirt would stick out like a sore thumb on security cameras. As she passed a young homeless man on the sidewalk, an idea suddenly struck her.

“Nice shirt,” She told him. “Want to trade?”

A few minutes she was sporting a once white t-shirt that must’ve not been washed since the man first got it. Jackie reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone and small wallet she kept with her. She grabbed a fifty dollar bill from the wallet before handing it along with the phone to the already bemused man.

“Here,” She said with an easy grin. “I recommend you keep the phone off and pawn it as soon as fucking possible. You’ve got about a day before the credit cards are locked, and there should be a few hundred in the wallet. Thanks man!”

Jackie walked off before the man could protest. He seemed nice. She really hoped he got some use out of the credit cards before the Justice League got to them. Plus, with any luck, a few random purchases around the city would throw them off long enough for her to make a getaway.

Jackie made her way through the city, carefully avoiding as many cameras as she could. A long walk later, relief flooded her chest as she finally approached her destination.

The apartment complex wasn’t rundown per say, but it undeniably in some desperate need of TLC. Definitely not as bad as some of the places she had stayed in back when she was Red Hood though.

The moment she entered the safehouse, she locked the door and windows and made sure all the alarms were set. She then promptly collapsed onto the dusty old couch with a small sigh.

Damn. How did she manage to fuck it up this bad?

There was no way the rest of the Bats hadn’t figured it out by now. Between the slipup with Superman and using Jason Todd’s override code, the rest of it would click into place easily for the family of detectives. There was no way they weren’t at least suspicious at this point.

Old memories flooded back in a nauseating rush. The hope, the pain, the betrayal. As much as she desperately wanted to make amends with the others, she wasn’t sure she could. Even five years later, the wound still felt fresh.

* * *

_5.5 years ago._

Jason stared at the night sky from his perch on the roof. Yup. Stars were a myth. Replacement had told him that you couldn’t see any in Gotham because of light pollution or something, but Jason wasn’t buying it.

Too bad the only time he had ever really left Gotham was while he was batshit crazy. His recollection of those times was shaky at best and nonexistent at worst. He couldn’t recall if he had seen any stars or not during his time training.

Fucking Pit.

Off in the distance, he could hear a siren blaring. He knew he should go check it out, and normally he would, but tonight he just felt… _tired_. So damn tired.

Jason didn’t know why he was tired. He had gotten five hours of sleep yesterday, a whole two hours more than normal, but he still just couldn’t seem to motivate himself to do much of anything lately.

“Todd.”

Jason glanced over his shoulder at the intruder. “What do you want, Demon?”

“Father wishes to speak with you,” Robin informed him. “He is very displeased with your performance the other night.”

Jason sighed. “I’m guessing I don’t have much choice in the matter?”

“No.”

“Whatever.” Jason grabbed his helmet from beside him and put it on, locking it into place. “Tell the old man I’ll come in after patrol.”

“You are usually done with patrol by now,” Robin pointed out impatiently.

Jason pulled out his phone and checked the time. What do you know? The brat was right. Did he really just sit on the roof the whole night? Huh.

“Fine,” Jason said finally. “Let me grab my bike.”

Robin grappled off into the night without acknowledging him further. Fine. Be like that.

Jason walked down the fire escape towards his bike below, taking his time on each step. He could have grappled down in a fifth of the time, but he wasn’t in any particular rush. This wasn’t going to be a pleasant talk and he didn’t mind procrastinating a bit.

He wondered if there were any bars open this late. After this conversation, he was going to need a drink. Maybe two.

Jason revved up his bike and rode back to the Cave.

Not even an hour later, he was exactly where he thought he’d be: being chewed out by a bat furry.

Usually the Cave felt open and vast. As a kid fresh off the streets, Jason had been in awe over how large it was. But now, standing across from a disapproving vigilante, it almost felt claustrophobic.

“You’re on thin ice, Jason.”

“I know,” Jason snapped. He glared at Bruce with a reflexive sneer. “You’ve told me.”

“I’m serious, Jason,” Bruce replied coolly, as if he was just a bystander witnessing a crime. “This needs to stop. You put a man in the hospital. He almost landed in the morgue.”

“I know!” Jason repeated angrily. “For fucks sake, I know!”

From across the Cave in the gym, Dick and Tim turned to watch. Fuck. Jason was starting to feel like he was an animal trapped in a zoo. All they needed was a sign stating to not give the monkey bullets.

“If you kill someone, I’ll have to bring you in.”

“I know! I know, I know, I know, I fucking know!” Jason growled. His vision flashed green. He quickly clamped down on the violent urge. “You’ve told me this a hundred times already, and I’ve already told you, it was a fucking accident.”

Before Bruce could respond, Jason stomped away like a moody teenager. Dammit! Why does no one ever believe him? It wasn’t his fault the jackass fell off the damn roof. He was starting to get flashbacks to Felipe Garzonas.

Jason started up the stairs to the manor, fully intending to leave. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dick start to follow him. At the top of the stairs, he stopped and whirled around to face the older man.

“What do you want, Dickface?” Jason hissed venomously. He wasn’t in the mood for another lecture, much less one by the Golden Boy himself.

“Little Wing,” Dick said gently, “I believe you.”

Jason faltered. Dick would never side with Jason over Bruce. It was just a fact of life. The sky is blue, Lex Luthor is bald, and Dick would never stand up for Jason. No force on Earth was strong enough to change that. Or at least, Jason had thought.

Dick sighed sadly at Jason’s hesitation. “I mean it, I believe you. He fell on his own.”

“Why?” Jason managed to croak.

Dick flashed him a smile. “I trust you, Jason.”

Jason returned the smile with a small one of his own.

Dick’s smile doubled as he carefully pulled Jason into a hug. The taller boy didn’t resist as he was engulfed. A weight he didn’t know was there left his shoulders as he sagged forward.

“Thanks.” The word felt foreign, but right.

* * *

_5.3 years ago_

Jason was feeling… better. It was amazing the difference having someone on your side made.

Sure, he had always somewhat got along with Replacement, but he tried to kill the guy once. How do you get over that?

And yeah, fine. Bruce and Damien were always on his case, but he could live with that.

Things with Dick had started to look up.

Dick didn’t accuse him every time something went wrong, Dick didn’t blame him when he missed something obvious, Dick was there to comfort him when he failed. Dick had even stood up for Jason a few times against Bruce.

It was finally starting to feel like Jason had family. The past few months had been almost dreamlike. Jason was starting to wonder if he was trapped in a Pit-fueled hallucination.

Jason’s comm buzzed in his ear. “Wassup?”

“Hey Red Hood,” Red Robin said. “I was wondering if you could head over to twenty-third and help me with a drug bust.”

“Really?” Jason asked, his voice bleeding surprise. “I mean, of course! ETA six minutes.”

Red Robin had asked for his help. Jason felt a flutter in his chest as he realized Tim wasn’t avoiding him. Maybe he could still salvage some sort of relationship after all.

* * *

_5.2 years ago_

“Hey Jason, you should come watch a movie with us at the Manor.”

“Hold still Dickface, you’re still bleeding,” Jason said as he applied a pressure bandage to the small stab wound on his brother’s hip. “How’d the fucker even get you?”

Dick shrugged. “Lucky shot. Anyways, you really should come. It would be a lot of fun! And I know he would never say it, but Bruce wants you to as well.”

Jason snorted. “I’ll believe it when I hear it. Bruce doesn’t want me within a hundred-foot radius of you all. I’m a bad fucking influence. Or didn’t you know?”

Dick exhaled sharply. “Come on, Little Wing. It isn’t like that.” A mischievous grin flickered across his face. “Alfred wants to see you.”

Jason jabbed the wound harshly, causing Dick to squeal. “No. You aren’t getting me with the Alfie card this time. I’m sure he would understand that I'm an adult and sometimes I need alone time.”

“Tim won’t,” Dick tried.

Jason paused. “What?”

“Tim. You know. Caffeinated, sleep-deprived genius you both love and hate?” Dick elaborated as Jason pulled him to his feet. “He’s basically a kid you know. He might see it as rejection. Kids are very impressionable.”

“He’s sixteen!” Jason protested.

“Exactly,” Dick retorted, “still a kid.” Dick eyed his younger brother, knowing he was considering it. “He would be really sad. He was looking forward to it and everything. Even chose a movie you’d like.”

Jason groaned and rubbed a hand over his face as Dick smirked, knowing he’d won.

“Fine, I’ll go. But only if I get Alfie’s homemade kettle corn seasoning for the popcorn.”

* * *

_5 years ago_

“Why are you here, Demon Brat?” Jason asked drowsily.

Damien said nothing, instead electing to glare at Jason like it was somehow his fault Damien had broken into his safehouse.

Getting nothing, Jason growled tiredly and shuffled towards the kitchen, dropping the Glock on the counter as he walked in. “Fine, be that way. I’m making a sandwich.”

Jason flung open the fridge and started pulling things out. He grabbed a variety of vegetables, followed by vegan cheese and an assortment of condiments before unceremoniously dropped them onto the counter.

He started assembling a sandwich under the judging gaze of his uninvited guest perched on his table. Jason set the finished product on a plate which he then promptly dropped in front of the kid before sitting down at the other end of the table.

“Eat. You obviously missed dinner.”

Damien was about to protest but thought better of it when his stomach growled loudly. He grabbed the sandwich and started eating it sullenly.

“So, what happened between you and Bruce?”

Damien nearly chocked on a bite. Jason quickly shoved a glass of water at the coughing boy who downed it in record time.

“What makes you think something happened between Father and I?” He finally snapped.

Jason laughed humorlessly. “Kid. I was Robin once too. I know that look. That look is the ‘I-just-fucked-up-and-Bruce-is-mad-at-me-so-I-ran-away’ look. Kudos to you though. At least you didn’t run to another country to find a mom that sold you out to the fucking Joker. So, what happened?”

Damien picked at a crumb on the plate, making him look all of like the twelve years old he was. He looked like he was debating telling Jason, but his pride wouldn’t let him.

Jason finally stood up. “Okay, you don’t need to tell me. I’m going to go watch a corny spy movie with lots of unnecessary explosions. You are more than welcome to join me if you feel like it.”

After a moment of thought, Damien rose to his feet and followed the older boy.

* * *

_4.9 years ago_

“Good job, Jason.”

“What?”

Jason had to be dreaming. There was no way that Bruce had just told him he did a good job. There was no fucking way.

Tim saw the look on Jason’s face and snorted. “Yeah. He just said that.”

“Why?” Jason asked, bemused.

“If I had to hazard a guess, I would say it was because you did a good job,” Tim said dryly.

“Shut up Replacement,” Jason snapped with no real heat.

Tim rolled his eyes before going back to work on the Batcomputer, leaving Jason alone with his thoughts.

Sure, he was on better terms with everyone now, but he still wasn’t sure that included Bruce. Lately it had seemed like Bruce was trying to make more of an effort, but Jason had chalked it up to his imagination and wishful thinking.

With a confused shake of his head, he went back to cleaning his guns.

* * *

_4.8 years ago_

“I didn’t do it!” Jason shouted at his family. “It wasn’t me! I was home all of yesterday. I swear!”

“I thought you were doing better,” Bruce, no, _Batman_ said coldly. “I told you what would happen if you killed again.”

“It. Wasn’t. Me. You’ve got to believe me!” Jason begged. “Bruce!” Jason whirled to face the others who stood around him in a circle, cornering him like an animal. “Guys, please! It really wasn’t me!”

“Then turn yourself in and we will sort it out,” Red Robin tried to rationalize.

“No,” Jason snarled. “I’m not getting put in a cage again. Fuck that!” He turned to look at Nightwing. “Dick. Please. You said you trusted me, so _trust me!_ ”

“I’m sorry,” Nightwing said softly.

Jason snarled and launched himself at his brother. A streak of black charged at him at nearly inhuman speeds.

Jason’s heart shattered along with his collarbone.

* * *

Jackie must have fallen asleep. When she blearily opened her eyes again, the room was pitch black. With a sleepy moan, she pulled herself off the couch and stumbled towards approximately where she knew a light switch was located. After fumbling around against the wall for a few minutes, she finally felt the cool touch of plastic.

The lights flicked on, blinding her for a moment before her eyes adjusted to the sudden torrent of light. Instantly, her instincts started screaming that something was very, very wrong.

Jackie inhaled sharply. She closed her eyes for a moment before turning around and demanding, “How did you find me?”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I'm still alive! Kind of...
> 
> Things were pretty crazy this past month, so I didn't have time to do much of anything. Hobbies? What are those? Sorry for leaving you all on a cliffhanger for over a month. Might not be worth the wait, but I do finally have an update!
> 
> Thanks for your patience and enjoy!

“How did you find me?”

Tim, in full Red Robin regalia, was sitting on the only serviceable barstool pulled up near the chipped kitchen counter. “I found out about this safehouse by accident about a year ago while going through your things,” He admitted unapologetically.

“Of course you did,” Jackie huffed. She walked into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge before scowling and slamming it shut in disgust. She turned around, and for the first time got a close look at her younger brother.

Damn, he got big. Or, at least big **ger**. The little twig of a boy grew up into a slim, yet muscular, young man. How old was he now? Old enough to drink, Jackie was sure. She felt a burst of something like longing deep in her chest. She played with the emotion for a moment before shoving it down again.

“Why are you here?” Jackie asked. Of course, she already had a pretty good idea why, but she wanted her suspicions confirmed.

Instead of answering the question, Tim stated, “You know, when we met back in Gotham, I thought you seemed familiar. I couldn’t quite place it, so I did a background search. Nothing. You had a legitimate paper trail all the way since birth, so I let it go.”

“Then someone dropped a flash drive with crucial information right on our front lawn,” He continued. “Everyone panicked. Someone knew who we were, yet we didn’t have a clue who they were. Then suddenly, you show up at Superman’s civilian residence, and everything started to make sense. You seemed familiar, you seemed to know me, you knew things you shouldn’t, and you don’t like heroes. The emergency password was the final piece to the puzzle. You know us personally because you used to be one of us. You don’t like us because we betrayed you.”

“Isn’t that right, Jason?”

“Ding, ding, ding! And we have a winner,” Jackie said sarcastically. “Congrats, Baby Bird. I’d give you a prize, but as you can see,” She gestured to the apartment, “I’m flat-ass broke at the moment.” She shifted her weight to one leg. “So, what now?” Tim faltered, as if afraid to answer. “Spit it out.”

“We need to go back to the Watchtower,” Tim said finally.

“Hell no!” Jackie snapped angrily. “I just escaped from there. Fuck you!”

“Jason-”

“Jackie.”

“Jackie, we need to go back. I don’t know why Bruce didn’t just tell you what was going on, but we really do have a problem that only you can fix.”

“Yeah?” Jackie spat. “And what’s that?”

“There are several components for the devices that we don’t have,” Tim said urgently. “And the schematics did not provide a way to build them.”

Jackie growled with frustration and wiped a hand down her face. “Fuck. Those were the only blueprints Omni left me.”

“Omni?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Jackie said. She tapped her foot rapidly for a moment as her mind raced. “Okay. What if you actually saw the devices? Could you replicate them then?”

“Maybe…” Tim said thoughtfully. “Are they here?”

Jackie shook her head. “No. They’re in Gotham.”

“At one of your safehouses?”

“Something like that.”

“Jackie.” The frustration in Tim’s voice grew. “Time is running out. We need a way to defend ourselves. The aliens are planning something. Something big. We don’t have time to play games.”

“Dammit Replacement!” Jackie snapped. “You think I don’t know that?” She sighed angrily. “I’ve already sacrificed a shit ton for others. I died in the pixie boots trying to help my mom for fucks sake! Then I finally get another chance to escape, and wouldn’t you know it? I lose that too.” She looked Tim in the eyes, the weariness evident on her face. “What you are asking is for me to sacrifice yet another piece of myself, Baby Bird. How much more are you going to take? I only have so much to give.”

Tim softened at her monologue. “I know,” He admitted gently. “And believe me when I say, I’m sorry. This was always the part of the job I hated most: being forced to choose between those I actually care about or the many.”

“But you are choosing the many.”

“Yes,” Tim said honestly. “But you are a part of that many. So I promise you this, when all this is said and done, I will help you. No matter what you want, I will help. If you want to disappear off the face of the earth, I’ll do it. If you never want to see another superhero again, consider it done. Just name it, and I’ll make sure it happens.”

Jackie thought for a moment before shooting him a lopsided grin. “You drive a hard bargain, Timmy. Fine. You’ve got a deal. I’ll do whatever I can, as long as you uphold your end when all this is over.”

* * *

“How long has this been here?” Tim asked as he lowered himself into the hole behind Jackie.

“Hell if I know. I found it years ago, back when I was on the streets.” She squinted into the darkness. “You got a light? I threw mine over the Manor fence.”

Tim pulled how flashlight and clicked it on, illuminating the path ahead. “By the way, thanks for that. It made it easier to find the flash drive, but that stunt nearly gave us all a heart attack.”

Jackie rolled her eyes. She grabbed the flashlight from him and started down the tunnel. “So, was that thanks sarcastic or not?”

“Both,” Tim admitted as he followed after her. He glanced over Jackie’s shoulder at the tunnel ahead. “Where are we going?”

Jackie tossed a grin at him. “You’ll see.” As they reached the end of the tunnel, she turned off the flashlight and flicked on the overhead ones. “Welcome to my crib, Baby Bird.”

Tim looked around at the cavern in awe. “Wow.” He walked over to the cluttered table with the old desktop and started shifting through a few of the documents. “What is this?”

“Some stuff I’ve picked up here and there,” Jackie said, walking past him towards the corner of the cavern where she stashed her other body. Tim watched curiously as she shoved the boxes out of the way, revealing the cryochamber. As she brushed ice off the glass, Tim peered over she shoulder.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Tim confessed as he finally saw what was in the cryochamber. “My bet was on magic.”

“Seriously? I gave you the schematics. I would’ve thought you’d figure out what the tech was for by now.”

Tim shrugged unapologetically. “Yeah, no. I’m good, but not that good. The technology is ridiculously complicated and could have dozens of applications. We were only interested in a couple particular uses, so we focused solely on those. Also, let’s just say that alien technology is not my forte.”

Jackie snorted. “Yeah, well. This is what I use it for.” She tapped a few buttons on the cryochamber. A loud crack echoed through the cavern, followed by a hiss of cold air streaming from the cryochamber.

Tim winced. “What are you doing?”

“Switching bodies,” Jackie said casually. At Tim’s incredulous look she added, “This body is one hundred percent civilian. It wouldn’t be much help in a fight. With how shit’s been going, we’re definitely going to need to fight.”

“You don’t need to fight,” Tim said quickly. “That wasn’t part of our deal.”

“Yeah well,” Jackie sighed. “Look, Tim. I’m already invested. I’ve given up a lot to get to this point, so I may as well see this thing through. Besides, if the League loses, I’ll be just as fucked as everyone else. I’m going to fight.”

“Will you be able to handle it?”

Jackie laughed humorlessly. “Do you mean, has my original body deteriorated to the point where I can’t fight in it? Or did you mean, how can you fight in a body that you haven’t been in for several months?”

“The second one.”

“Body swapping is a bit like riding a bike,” Jackie explained as she set the controls on the cryochamber. “It’s difficult to learn at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can pick it up again after years. It’ll take a little time to get used to, but by the time we reach the Watchtower, I’ll be good to go.”

The cryochamber started humming as the heaters begun thawing out Jackie’s other body. Once she was satisfied everything was working properly, she turned and walked towards the desk with the computer. She carelessly flung open a lower drawer, revealing two thick metal bands. She grabbed them and walked back over to Tim.

Tim eyed the devices warily. “Are those them?”

“Yup,” Jackie confirmed. She held them up to show Tim. “These are what all the fuss is about. Pretty dull looking, huh? I honestly don’t have a fucking clue how they work, but they work pretty damn well.”

“And you got them from this Omni person?”

Jackie shrugged. “‘Person’ is a stretch, but yeah. I also got this body from them.” She gestured at herself. “Said it was a gift, that I needed to get away to find myself. Can’t say I disagree with the sentiment.”

Tim shifted uncomfortably for a moment. “I’m sorry,” He finally blurted out.

“What for, Baby Bird?”

“For not believing you,” Tim said, unable to maintain eye contact with Jackie. Wow. For a Bat, that was an enormous display of emotions. Little Timmy really had grown up. Jackie wasn’t sure how she felt about that.

Jackie sighed. “You know, you’re not the ones that need to apologize. You and Damien were both just kids following what your role models told you, and I can’t fault you for that. Hell! I did the same exact thing at that age. It took me dying to see that maybe, _just maybe_ , Bruce isn’t always right.” She shrugged and tossed Tim a sad grin. “Honestly, I’m not sure that an apology would do much good at this point anyways. I don’t think I can ever forgive Dick and Bruce. Their betrayal cut just a little too deep.”

“You might not believe it, but they really do miss you,” Tim revealed cautiously. “When we found out you were innocent, they looked everywhere. They practically turned Gotham inside-out looking for you.”

“Guilt is a powerful motivator,” Jackie replied dismissively. “They did the same thing the first few times too. The only difference is that this time, they couldn’t find me.” The cryochamber let out a long beep. “Well shoot. Looks like we’ll have to finish this riveting and not at all awkward conversation later.”

Jackie pressed a button on the cryochamber, causing the door to slide open, allowing access to the body. Jackie slipped one of the headbands onto her male body, the skin was still cool to the touch. She pressed one of the buttons on the side of it and then then slid the second one onto her brow.

“Now what?” Tim asked curiously.

“Now I get my ass on the couch so I don’t crack my skull open when I activate the devices,” Jackie said teasingly. She followed through a moment later, situating herself so that when this body when limp, it wouldn’t fall to the floor. She inhaled sharply before exhaling slowly. “Alright, showtime bitch.”

She pressed the identical button on her headband and the world vanished in a burst of white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... You might have noticed I haven't responded to comments made on any of my stories, and there is a reason for that. Simply put, I haven't been on this site in over a month. Normally, I would try to respond to all comments to show my appreciation to my readers, however I feel really awkward responding to a comment that is over a week old, much less one that is over thirty days old. As such, because of how infrequently I have been on my account lately, I likely won't be responding to comments anymore unless they are more along the lines of a question and need clarification. That being said, I read each and every one of the comments I receive and I honestly appreciate the feedback immensely.
> 
> So I'll just say this: Thank you so much for reading and for all the comments! You all are great!


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... Life got busy. I've had to make a lot of difficult (but not necessarily bad) decisions the past couple months and then plan accordingly. As such, I haven't had much free time to do much of anything. 
> 
> Hobbies? What are those?
> 
> Anyways, I've finally got an update for you all! Hope it was worth another long wait!

As soon as Jason and Tim landed on the Watchtower teleporter, they were swarmed by curious heroes. Jason wasn’t entirely sure why they were so interested or what they even knew about the situation, but their sudden attention made him nervous.

Tim caught on to this and tried to politely shoo them away while Jason not-so-politely gave them all the middle finger. That, more than anything, seemed to get the point across. The point being “fuck off” of course.

Jason followed Tim’s lead as they made their way down a series to halls, pace brisk and suggesting that the younger had a specific destination in mind.

“So,” Jason said finally, his voice distorted from the red helmet covering his face, “where are we going? I’m not going to get thrown in another interrogation cell again, am I?”

If Jason wasn’t looking for it, he wouldn’t have noticed the small wince that flickered across his sort-of brother’s face. “Yeah, sorry about that. We might have jumped to the conclusion that since you had access to the Alt’et’s technology that you had something to do with them. So, to answer your question, no. We are not going to the interrogation cells.” He glanced over at Jason, who was trailing a couple steps behind. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Jason waved him off with a large, gloved hand. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. The size difference is just making me a little dizzy. It’ll go away shortly. And you never did answer my question.”

That wasn’t a lie. The size difference between his two bodies definitely took a little getting used to, especially when he hadn’t switched in so long. But if he was lagging behind just to drag this walk out a little longer, well, Jason wasn’t about to say anything.

“We’re heading to the Original’s private conference rooms,” Tim told him hesitantly.

Of fucking course. This was almost worse than an interrogation room. Why couldn’t it be the lounge or something? Hell! Jason would even take the breakroom over the Original’s conference room. That thing was designed to intimidate. Usually, it was only used when something big was going down, such as disciplinary actions and the like. Or, as the name implied, when it was being used by the original seven because the normal conference room was taken.

“We sure this isn’t an interrogation?” Jason joked, trying to take an edge off his nervousness. The look on Tim’s face told him everything he needed to know. “Oh.”

Well. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, it seemed. He really couldn’t catch a break, could he. Jason was starting to think that when this whole thing was over, he was going to have to take some drastic actions, ones that he promised himself he wasn’t going to do.

As they approached the doors to the conference room, Jason could feel his heartrate picking up. Tim seemed to sense his nervousness, because he paused outside the room to let Jason get ahold of himself.

After taking a minute to wrangle control of himself, Jason gave Tim the okay and the doors were flung open.

Yup. This was even worse than he had imagined it would be.

The Original’s conference room was painted an intimidating shade of gray with huge portraits of fallen heroes that Jason knew had cameras behind them. In the center of the room was a large semi-circle table facing into the center of the room. Seated behind the table was all seven original members and seated behind them against the wall jury-style was a whole peanut gallery of heroes that Jason had hoped he would never see in person again.

Tim patted his shoulder reassuringly before darting towards the back where there was a distinct flash of blue that Jason refused to look at. Swallowing the growing lump in his throat, Jason made his way towards the center of the room as the chatter around him waned to silence. He gently set down the case he had been holding by his feet before looking up.

“Red Hood.”

Jason’s eyes automatically snapped to the speaker. “Batman,” He gritted out dangerously at the hero seated near the center of the table. “Nice of you to force me out of retirement and put me on the spot like this. So, what can I do for you?”

If his presence or angry tone had any affect on his pseudo father, then the black-clad hero didn’t show it. Of course not. Batman showing emotion. Perish the thought.

“Jay,” Wonder Woman breathed. “It is so good to see you.”

Under his helmet, Jason couldn’t help but grin. There was a reason Diana had been his idol as a child. As flawed as she was, she was still an amazing person. He really did mean it when he responded with a quick, “You too.”

Superman cleared his throat before fidgeting with a few papers laid out before him. “Let’s, uh, let’s get this meeting started. So, um. Jason, where have you been?”

The use of his first name startled him for a moment before Jason remembered that Bruce’s identity had been outed to some of the League shortly after he fled, and so by extension his had been as well. That likely meant that everyone in this room knew who he was, including his less than savory past. Great.

Jason cleared his throat. “College.”

“College?” Someone in the peanut gallery repeated incredulously.

“Yeah, college,” Jason deadpanned. “I was pretty sure you would have figured that out least by now. I mean, all you had to do was search the name ‘Jacqueline Garcia.’ I wasn’t exactly trying to hide it.”

Superman coughed, clearly a little offput by the whole situation. “How did you, uh, change your… uh.”

Jason was taking way too much pleasure in watching the boy scout fumble for words. He deserved it, after what he had put Jason through earlier. Finally, Jason decided to have mercy and step in for his once-uncle.

“I switched bodies.”

“With whom?” Yup. There was Batman again. Taking control of the conversation like he owned it.

“Jacqueline Garcia,” Jason said cheekily. If these assholes wanted to wreck his life and uncover all his secrets in this little spectacle, then he was sure as hell going to make them work for it.

“So, you stole someone’s body?!” Flash blurted out so quickly Jason almost missed the question.

Jason had to laugh at that, his distorted voice sounding almost demonic. All this time and they still thought he was some sort of villain. Of course they would go directly to body-snatching. Then again, the truth was almost less believable, so who knows.

“No,” Jason wheezed, trying to smother the last of his outburst. “The body was a gift from a friend. And no, my friend did not steal the body either. Before anyone asks, my friend _was_ Jacqueline Garcia. No one stole anyone else’s body.”

“How does someone just give you a body?” Green Arrow wondered from the back.

“My friend wasn’t human,” Jason clarified. He wasn’t sure how much of this he should be saying, but the sooner he got all the dirty details out in the open, the sooner they could focus on the things that really mattered. “They were kind of a body-hopping entity, only not really. They would be born into a species, live out their life gathering information about said species, die, then move on. Don’t know why they wanted to be human of all things, but who am I to judge.”

“That was how you had access to Alt’et technology,” Batman inferred.

“Yeah,” Jason admitted, glad they were finally catching on. “Like I said during my fun little interrogation earlier, my friend travels the universe. They probably were part of the Alt’et at one point and got the specs from them. I honestly can’t tell you anything more than that.”

“How did you meet?” Batman asked intently. Wonderful. He was probing for something. Jason wasn’t sure what, but he knew he didn’t want the old man to find it.

“None of your business,” Jason snapped back. “I can guarantee that you knowing that information will not help you with this fucking situation at all, so can we please stay on task here?” He reached down and lifted the case, presenting it to the collection of rapt heroes. “This is one of the headbands that allows me to switch bodies. It has a lot of different psychic capabilities, so it might be able to block the mind control. You know, the thing we are trying to prevent? The _actual_ reason I am here?”

If he didn’t have everyone’s attention before, he definitely had it now.

The whites of Batman’s mask narrowed in on the case. “Cyborg.” The hero in question sitting in the peanut gallery stiffened. “You and Blue Beetle will both examine the device and see if it can block the mind control and if it can be duplicated.”

The young hero gave the intimidating furry a quick, “Yes sir” before standing to take the device from Jason, who jerked it away.

“Hell no!” He snarled at the poor hero, who stepped back hands raised in submission. “This fucker isn’t leaving my sight.”

After all, it was basically the key to his whole life. If it somehow were ruined, Jason would be stuck as, well, Jason. And while he didn’t hate being Jason, Jackie was now a part of him too, one that he really didn’t want to lose.

Batman nodded before wordlessly dismissing the gathering.

Cyborg gestured for Jason to follow him, to which he complied, still tightly clutching the case to his chest. As the exited, Jason pointedly avoided contact with any of the other heroes, especially the young man in the back with a bright blue bird blazoned across his chest who really looked like he needed a hug.

Fuck that shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got to say, when I first started this story all those months ago, I never imagined that it would get so popular. Over 5000 hits?! Since when!
> 
> So I'd just like to say, thanks! You've all been really, really great. Honestly, since I'm a fairly inexperienced writer, I've hit writers block more than a few times and I only managed to work through it by seeing that others actually enjoy my work.
> 
> I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Thank you!


End file.
